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NMM Guidelines November2013
The New Metropolitan Mainstream: Guidelines November 2013 W'hat is the NMM? ' The term “New Metropolitan Mainstream” was developed to decipher a broad range of phenomena that have recently emerged in cities around the world, which have important impacts on urban development and everyday life. Under the conditions of planetary urbanization, cities have become strategic nodes of the global economy and of social life. Increased competition between cities leads to similar strategies for attracting capital investment and highly qualified labour, and similar standards and processes for urban planning and design. A prestigious blend of cultural amenities and offerings for luxury consumption is today part of the standard policy repertoire. Many contemporary cities both in the global North and in the global South are confronted with gentrification and urban regeneration, and have been equipped with skyscrapers, flagship projects, and “star” architecture. The new metropolitan mainstream has multiple faces and exists in many different versions. It is the aim of our project to describe and analyse this diversity. What is the NMM project? The New Metropolitan Mainstream project was started in 2008 at the 18th INURA conference in Istanbul. Analytical categories and standard framework settings were developed in a collective process. 36 local teams designed maps and posters of their cities using common indicators and criteria. Maps and posters were presented in a public exhibition at the 20th INURA conference 2010 in the Rote Fabrik Zurich. They were subsequently revised and published on the INURA website in October 2011 (see www.inura.org/nmm_posters2.html). After the Zurich conference, we met in several workshops (Berlin, March 2011; Athens, February 2012; Vienna, October 2012; Florence, March 2013; Berlin, August 2013) as well as in the retreats of the INURA conferences (Mexico City/Tepoztlan 2011, Tallinn/Kloogaranna 2012, Lisbon/Curia 2013) in order to advance our set of categories for mapping the New Metropolitan Mainstream by using a new structure of five layers; to develop a book project; to form several working groups; to search for funding; to introduce a new mapping software on the base of an open source mapping platform; to reconstruct INURA's history as the background of the NMM project and to develop a procedure for the comparison of the individual cities. What is the NMM book? The book project is still "work in progress", open to the participation of other INURA people and groups. What has been decided, however, is the basic character of this book: it has a much more collective approach than in the past, there is no small group of editors. The book is organized in three sections, and working groups have been formed responsible for the different sections. Section I: Introduction / Theoretical and Methodological Approaches This is a collectively written section that brings together introductory texts, and theoretical and methodological approaches. ' ' Section II: 'Maps and City Portraits' The city portraits and maps will be the heart of the new NMM book. Responsible for the content is each participating city. ' ' Section III: Comparative Analysis The main aim of this section is to compare and contrast as many cities as possible trying to describe and elaborate similarities and differences. It intends to focus on most of the NMM themes dealt with in the maps and city portraits. Responsible are various editing groups organized around specific topics. No final decisions have been taken so far regarding the title of the book, the publisher, the format and layout, and whether we will and can have both, a printed and an online version. Next step: The 24th INURA Conference, Belgrade/Tara, June 22–29, 2014 At the Belgrade conference, we will present the posters with the revised maps and city portraits, in a similar way as at the Zurich Conference in 2010 (probably with smaller posters). During the retreat in Tara, we will discuss and review all contributions form section I, section II, and section III, in order to finalise the book project, and decide on the next concrete steps for the publication. Time Schedule ' ' ''' '''Means of communication WIKI: http://inura.wikia.com/wiki/Wiki_Content The general tool of communication and information for everybody is the Wiki. It is especially useful to facilitate the collective writing process. BLOG: http://www.inura.org/blog.html For all internal discussions there is also the INURA blog, accessible on the INURA homepage. If you have not done it so far, you can register for the access to the blog. ' ' Contact persons: ' ' Section I – Theoretical and Methodological Approaches http://INURA.wikia.com/wiki/''' ' Facilitators: Marvi, Katerina, Angela, Laura, Lorenzo. ''For comments, questions, contributions, contact any of them: ''marvi_maggio@libero.it; kapolaki@gmail.com; stienena@gmail.com; laura.colini@gmail.com; lorenzo.tripodi@gmail.com ' ' '''Section I' will consist of 3 parallel « stories » which reconstruct INURA’s history focusing explicitly on theoretical/political issues which turned into key debates related to the NMM project. The section will consist of collectively reconstructed material collected through the wiki. In the book, the 3 « stories » are represented as parallel « lines »: ' ' The first « line » is a TIMELINE: It reconstructs the DATES and PLACES of selected INURA events (conferences /retreats /meetings etc.) that we identify as key moments in INURA’s history because important theoretical/political issues were debated which we consider key controversies related to the NMM project. ' ' The second « line » is a NARRATIVE: It reconstructs the above mentioned INURA debates which we identified as KEY CONTROVERSIES related to the NMM project: Debate 1: Activism/academicism (facilitator: Marvi) Debate 2: Local/international (facilitator: Katerina) Debate 3: South/North (and later) East/West (facilitator: Angela, Soledad, Omar, Katerina) Debate 4: Legal/illegal/formal/informal (facilitator: Anna-Lisa, Antonella) Debate 5: post-millenium financial crisis (facilitator: Dimitra) Debate 6: Mapping /not mapping (facilitator: Anke, Cristina) Debate 7: Evolution of the NMM-categories used by all cities to construct the maps (how they changed and what this meant for the mapping process). (facilitators : Dimitra, Philip, Marvi, Katerina) Moreover there is one transversal debate which influenced the 7 others: Gender (facilitator: Marvi) The third « line » is a collection of key DOCUMENTS which have been written by INURA members as contributions to 1 or several of those 7 KEY CONTROVERSIES, as well as to the GENDER DEBATE: This « line » represents the title and perhaps the author(s) of the documents and one short key quotation from each of the documents. The collected documents in its whole length will be available online. Only documents will be considered, which have been distributed in the INURA network, or presented at an INURA event or in the name of INURA, in order to explicitly enrich the above mentioned key controversies. Other documents authored by INURA members on issues related to the key controversies (publications, papers, etc.) which were published or presented for personal (or other) purposes but neither in the name of INURA nor at an INURA event, cannot be considered. In the book, the « lines » will be represented as parallel « lines », so the reader will be able to jump from one « line » to another, or only focus on one « line ». Although the selected key controversies did not really develop in a chronological way, and some of them overlapped, there is a certain chronology from debate 1 to debate 7. It will be helpful to follow this chronology when filling in the information into the wiki. ' ' How to proceed until March 2014: Some information related to each of the 3 « lines » has already been introduced in the wiki and also some documents have already been collected and put into the wiki; however, the information and documents are not yet organized in the proposed way (table!). In Lisbon 2013 we decided: ''' 1) that for the moment, the table above will be introduced in the wiki in order to help us to keep the parallel « lines » in mind, everybody who fills information into one or more of the 3 « lines » is aware how each « line » is related to each other. The way of presenting the 3 « lines » can be changed later when the information is collected. 2) in order to accelerate the construction of part I, the facilitators will organize the information which is already in the wiki in the table and start (or continue) reconstructing the 7 controversies in the table in order to motivate the others to do so as well; they will particularly invite contributions from all those of whom they know that they actively contributed during INURA’s history to one or more of the 7 debates with a paper or document, or with minutes and/or notes. Nevertheless, everyone (every city) is called to contribute to the wiki with some lines, comments in all sections of part I, also people or cities who did not participate in the NMM-working groups and at the intermediate meetings. 3) after reconstructing the key controversies (line 2) in the proposed way, the result will look like 6 independent subchapters. However, in order to make visible how the 6 controversies emerged and developed – often in response to each other – those subchapters will be reworked into one single narrative (which will be easier to be read). The single narrative might have 6 (or more) subtitles. The final narrative will be written by one or two persons who will be elected by vote at the next INURA conference (or NMM-meeting); nevertheless, the authorship of part I will be of all contributors of the information collected to reconstruct the 6 key controversies; the narrative is exclusiveley based on that information. '''Please note: The construction of SECTION 1 is open to everyone, not only to those who had a more active role in the INURA-network and/or those directly contacted by the facilitators. The challenge of the collective construction of SECTION I is to incorporate different views in order to make visible that (old and new) controversies in the INURA-network are highly stimulating and productive for the NMM-project. Everybody is therefore called to contribute to the reconstruction of the selected key debates from different angles. Section II City Portraits and Maps http://INURA.wikia.com/wiki/ http://worldmap.harvard.edu/maps/2405 www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWuIevcjKj0 2-2013_NMM_Maps.pdf 3-2013_NMM_Categories.pdf www.inura.org/nmm_posters2.html (all Zurich 2010 Posters) The city portraits and maps will be the heart of the new NMM book and the exhibition in Belgrade 2014, consisting of 6 to 8 pages for every participating city. They are based on the maps and posters prepared for the INURA conference and exhibition in Zurich 2010, but will differ in some ways. The task of this paragraph is to explain very briefly what we expect from INURA groups participating in the project. ' ' 1. Required for the City Portraits are: 1) A small regional map showing the boundaries of the metropolitan areas (this was already part of the "old" NMM mapping exercise, but must be updated in the new mapping environment). 2) A revised main map using the new categories and mapping tools (see the following paragraphs, and the information provided in the two additional pdf-files). 3) Three case studies. 4) An introduction and a conclusio'''n (revised versions of the 2010 poster texts). 5) Optional are one or two '''extra pages, where everything that is "non-mappable" can be addressed. These pages can be also used for additional maps, zoom-ins, graphics, texts etc. Feel free to propose whatever you think is important for your city. 2. How will the case studies differ from the ones prepared for the Zurich posters? The case studies you are asked to prepare for the posters and the book can be the same ones you used for the first posters for the exhibition at INURA 2010. Ideally, we would like to have a case study about: 1) A place / object / site serving as a (failed or successful) flagship project: e.g. site of cancelled Olympics in Rome or Berlin Castle (see existing posters Rome and Berlin) 2) A neighbourhood that is a good example of (the positive, negative or mixed) outcome of the NMM in your city: e.g. Brunnenviertel Vienna (see existing poster Vienna). 3) An alternative: e.g. Piagge Community Florence (see existing poster Florence). You will have a maximum of one page (about 2.000 signs) for each case study. You can decide to use your "old" poster texts and update them or you can choose different sites and projects. For the content you may orient yourself on the original structure, but you have more space and leeway and thus may decide to follow a revised structure. The original structure was as follows: • description / reason for the choice of the case study / background / context • stakeholders and their interests • deals • impacts In any case, we expect you to explain why the chosen case studies are important for your city and the urban development of the past decades and how they relate the New Metropolitan Mainstream. In the synthesis / conclusions we would also like to learn something on the effects of the economic and financial crisis on your city. 3. Example for a City Portrait (6 pages) This is a schematic distribution of the materials in the 6 pages that are planned for the book (this can change according to the number of cities, but we plan 6 as the minimum available pages for every city). The same texts, maps, images will be used for new panels for a future exhibition and for the on-line publication. At the moment we do not still have indication about formatting and probably we will be able to centralise the work of producing a layout for the book and panels and to adapt texts according with the layout. Page 1-2: main revised map Page 3: small regional map, texts: introduction and first case study, photos Page 4: texts: second and third case study, photos Page 5: texts: synthesis / conclusions Page 6: additional maps and photos referring to important urban social movements or to the effects of the economic crisis 4. The new maps After the Zurich 2010 conference we changed the mapping environment because some of specific needs and requests and in order to use the new categories. We moved our mapping activities from the Google maps platform to an open source mapping environment: Worldmap (Harvard University, based on the software GeoNode). All city groups are asked now to revise their 2010 maps or to produce new maps. For that purpose, Iacopo has set up a website, where each city will work independently in a separate web space. Every INURA group has to contact Iacopo first to get access to this working space (iacopo@controgeografie.net). For the technical explanation about how to work with our new NMM mapping tools see 2-2013_NMM_Maps.pdf. For a short introduction on video see: www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWuIevcjKj0 The process of revising the categories was developed after the annual meeting in Zurich (2010) and ended in Kloogaranna/Tallin (2012). You can find the new categories in the file 3-2013_NMM_Categories.pdf As we all want to have nice maps in the end and we agreed that this requires a second work step. The mapping group (at this moment: Christian, Katerina, Iacopo) is working on the technical and design issues trying to produce a first prototype of what the final graphic could look like. For the Belgrade conference we will produce a “minimum standard”: Christian offered that his students at ETH could transform the maps into posters (in a similar way as it was done for the first NMM exhibition in Zurich in 2010). 5. How to produce the new posters? 1) For the maps: ''' just finish your maps with the new NMM mapping tool online until '''March 31, 2014. We will than download the information, transfer it to a layout tool and print the maps. 2) For the City Portraits: Please send us either the final poster as pdf or send us the individual elements, and we will put them together. Deadline: March 31, 2014 '''(further details and the relevant e-mail address will be communicated later). '''Section III – Comparisons Comparisons of phenomena, processes and impacts of the NMM – Evaluating similarities and differences for a new understanding of urbanization processes ' ' http://inura.wikia.com/wiki/Chapter_3_guidelines?action=edit&section=2 '' '' Facilitators / working group 'In this group were originally several people, but it somehow dissolved. In order to accompany the process of comparisons successfully, the formation of a renewed '''group '''is urgently needed!! Please contact Penny and Philipp (penny_ek@yahoo.co.uk; philipp@inura.ch). ' ''' '''1. Main collective contributions and responsibilities Section 3 is about comparison. Its main aim is to compare and contrast (ideally) as many cities that are part of the NMM project as possible trying to describe and elaborate similarities and differences. It intends to focus on most of the NMM themes dealt with in the maps and city portraits, through the comparison of mappable and non-mappable phenomena, processes and impacts. By such comparisons, it aims to critically evaluate, as much as possible, similarities and differences of NMM processes in different cities. The section will consist of 8 – 12 collaborative texts of 2000 – 4000 words each. 2. Themes for the collaborative texts After considering the abstracts sent in for Section 3 and their relation to categories and layers, some gaps as well as commonalities were identified during the Vienna 2012 workshop. Based on these, a list of re-arranged themes for Section 3 was developed, including mappable and non-mappable issues, which was finalised to its current form at the Florence workshop. For some of these topics an abstract and a working group already exists, while for others a group needs to be formed if a collaborative text on this themes is to be written. The coordinators of each text will be responsible for organising the collaborative writing of the text, for going through the relevant material and for contacting other cities (NMM participants not already in the working group) that they consider relevant for the given topic. People interested in participating in the working groups for each theme should contact the coordinators. People that have changed their mind about participating in a particular theme should also notify the coordinators. If there is a strong interest (by a group of people) on a theme that is not mentioned on the list below, please contact Philipp to add it on the list. In order to ensure that enough people and cities participate in the comparative texts, each author should be part of a maximum of 2 collaborative texts. 3. How to write contributions for Part 3 ''' Working groups are formed not primarily by cities or their representatives but by INURA members that are interested in the particular theme. Persons that want to write and join a working group (collective writing) should first of all be interested in the theme and not in their own city alone. Every contribution shall explore a specific theme (see above), trying to include several cities, cases and examples while allowing for similarities and differences to be illustrated. There is a great wealth of work done so far and this material should be used accordingly. As such the collaborative texts should primarily draw on the NMM-material produced by the teams (city portraits, maps, case studies, introductions and conclusions) as well as on relevant literature on the particular theme and other relevant material (data, reports, videos, etc.). All of the initial posters with case studies, maps etc. are on: www.inura.org/nmm_posters2.html All collaborative texts should be an open reflection on comparative processes, phenomena and impacts rather than conclusions. All working groups should also reflect on the influence of the crisis on their working theme. Groups should also discuss how to work together. In order to include as many cities as possible, it is recommended that writing groups do not only focus on the cities that are already overrepresented. '''4. Next step The next step is that every group organizes itself again, and writes (or revises) the abstract. This abstract should contain: *The title (theme) *The name of the coordinator *The names of involved authors and cities *The categories that are treated *A short description of the theme and (if possible) first hypotheses / findings ' ' ' ' ' ' 'List of proposed themes for collaborative texts ' http://inura.wikia.com/wiki/Chapter_3_guidelines?action=edit&section=2 ' '